Ai Yori Aoshi - Interactive Novel... anyone played it yet? [Archive]

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Rhodes

01-19-2006, 01:07 PM

I tried it... the storyline seems to be set during the 1st season of the show... heck it even uses the anime opening and closing (songs). There are custom closing based on the path you take but the song is the same.

Return of the JP cast.

Played/Read thru the 1st story/episode.

Its pretty nice, almost feels like a regular anime episode.

Course no nudity... The manga commerical/spoof of the game was much more interesting =P

perigee

01-19-2006, 04:34 PM

I've had a look at it, but so far only the island script. The minigames - which I think you need to win in order to unlock the second half - are actually hard to navigate using my marginal mouse. There's nothing new in the way of story or character development, but it's fun to see and hear the AYA gang again. The Japanese sold this as two separate games, so Hirameki was a little more user-friendly with their release.

cxt217

01-20-2006, 12:41 PM

[ QUOTE ]
perigee said:
The Japanese sold this as two separate games, so Hirameki was a little more user-friendly with their release.

[/ QUOTE ]

That and they actually started trending away from forcing you to play the game on a DVD player. While I enjoyed playing Hourglass of Summer, the use of the DVD player interface made it hard to fully enjoying playing the game. It would be very nice if they went back and re-released Hourglass for the PC.

I had Ai Yori Aoshi on my hard drive since September, but I actually have to get back to playing it. I am interested in both Ever 17 and Piece of Wonder (The other two PC games they either have out or are planning to release.), but the latter suffers from Hirameki's glacial release schedule, and Rightstuf has not gotten Ever 17 in-stock yet.

C.T.

golthin

01-20-2006, 07:18 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Rhodes said:
I tried it... the storyline seems to be set during the 1st season of the show... heck it even uses the anime opening and closing (songs). There are custom closing based on the path you take but the song is the same.

Return of the JP cast.

Played/Read thru the 1st story/episode.

Its pretty nice, almost feels like a regular anime episode.

Course no nudity... The manga commerical/spoof of the game was much more interesting =P

[/ QUOTE ]
IS this the game that HIRAMEKI INTERNATIONAL released?
Is the japanese version more adult than this? I basically don't buy anything that HIRAMEKI INTERNATIONAL releases, and I hope they don't do too well with the way they release things. It seems they are not selling to well, always see most of the games in stock in TRSI. Considering they are trying to sell this games to 13+ year old with the expetion of two that are rated 15+. Which 13 year old will play this type of game when there is the PS2, Xbox, or nitendo.

perigee

01-20-2006, 07:51 PM

[ QUOTE ]
golthin said:
Is the japanese version more adult than this?

[/ QUOTE ]
AFAIK, it's the same version. AYA, the anime, may have adult themes, but it's not hentai. This isn't like some H-games that Hirameki localized and edited for content.

After reviewing the J.C.STAFF game page (http://www.jcstaff.co.jp/sho-sai/ais-shokai/ais-index.htm), I wonder if some scenes may have been removed for other reasons. I don't recall seeing some of the gallery pictures before. OTOH, I haven't completed all of the game.

Rhodes

01-21-2006, 03:49 AM

those arent in the game... 1st part takes place on a deserted island... 2nd part takes place at Mayu's summer house by a lake.

there is no castle in either game setting.

also chika's 2 school friends arent in the games... that would place those games during the 2nd season.

while the game out in the US is set during the 1st season.

perigee

01-21-2006, 10:40 AM

OK, I did some more research and learned that there was a second AYA game produced by KID (http://www.kid-game.co.jp/kid/game/aiao/top.html) for the PS2. According to IGN - [ QUOTE ]
Ai Yori Aoshi (PS2)
Adventure game from Success, re-released as part of the SuperLite collection on 6/23 2005. This game is a budget re-release of Ai Yori Aoshi featuring new artwork. As with the original release, the story focuses on a girl called Tina who, having just entered winter break, sees a television program about a southern island and developers an urge to go to the beach. While this is impossible, as it's winter, she comes up with the idea of heading out to a nearby mansion, which seems like it will serve as a perfect place to chill during break.

[/ QUOTE ]
So it appears that the Hirameki game was adapted from this release and not the first one. I don't know how faithful it is to the KID title.

Celsius

01-29-2006, 06:47 PM

[ QUOTE ]
golthin said:
[ QUOTE ]
Rhodes said:
I tried it... the storyline seems to be set during the 1st season of the show... heck it even uses the anime opening and closing (songs). There are custom closing based on the path you take but the song is the same.

Return of the JP cast.

Played/Read thru the 1st story/episode.

Its pretty nice, almost feels like a regular anime episode.

Course no nudity... The manga commerical/spoof of the game was much more interesting =P

[/ QUOTE ]
IS this the game that HIRAMEKI INTERNATIONAL released?
Is the japanese version more adult than this? I basically don't buy anything that HIRAMEKI INTERNATIONAL releases, and I hope they don't do too well with the way they release things. It seems they are not selling to well, always see most of the games in stock in TRSI. Considering they are trying to sell this games to 13+ year old with the expetion of two that are rated 15+. Which 13 year old will play this type of game when there is the PS2, Xbox, or nitendo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes this is the one Hirameki International released. Why don't you want Hirameki to do well? Ai Yori Aoshi was the first game I've bought from them and, aside from a few typos, I thought they did a good job on its release. And they really aren't targeting the 13 year olds but rather the anime fans of the U.S. who are curious about these text adventure games that are a huge hit in JP.

I picked up Ai Yori Aoshi, Ever 17: The Out of Infinity, and Hourglass of Summer.

Here are my ratings/Opinions on them.

Ai Yori Aoshi - 5/10. Mediocre. You should only consider it IF you're a big fan of the anime/manga. The two stories can very well be considered 2 unanimated episdoes, and it would've worked well if it were animated and not still pics/characters. Good voice acting though . I think Hirameki's purpose for securing this title is to get the attention of the U.S. anime fans, and they certainly did get my attention with this title. And I'm glad they did due to their release of. . .

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity - 9.3/10. The story is simply AMAZING. I highly recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in the the text adventure style games. This is also from the developers of Ai Yori Aoshi, but unlike Ai Yori Aoshi, this game was worth every single penny I spent on it. There are 5 character paths with 9 different endings (+ 3 epilogues). Some great bonuses for PC users such as wallpapers, system voices, Screensavers, etc. The voice actors are really good too (Yuu Asakawa, the voice of Love Hina's Motoko Aoyoma, is the voice of Tsugumi Komachi). Above all of course is the story, which you MUST play through and get all 5 good endings to unravel the mystery. The characters are great. Highly recommended. I actually went out of my way to unlock everything in this game and looked into other games in the Infinity series (Never 7: The End of Infinity and Remember 11: The Age of Infinity). It also takes place in the same world of the Memories Off games but there's no reference to it here I believe. I hope Hirameki decides to bring over more games of this high quality. Please bring over the rest of the Infinity Series.

*Note, disc four of this release is missing a voice file data. You can ask Hirameki to send you a burned disc 4 or dl the data from their site.

Hourglass of Summer - 8/10. I really really liked this game but I can't rate it higher because it's in the horrible DVD format. IF this game were on the PC It'd score in the 9s for me. Great characters and story. This will probably be the only DVD game I ever buy. A PC version of this was released in Japan with Hentai Scenes added, I wish that version was ported over instead.

Because of Ever 17: The Out of Infinity, Hirameki has earned my respect. According to the hint on their site, they are bringing over Air next. As long as they keep the format on PC, I'll be supporting them. They need to work on the typos though. and the glitched Ever 17 disc was a horrible mistake that, thankfully was remedied quickly.

cxt217

01-30-2006, 09:12 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Celsius said:
Hourglass of Summer - 8/10. I really really liked this game but I can't rate it higher because it's in the horrible DVD format. IF this game were on the PC It'd score in the 8s for me. Great characters and story. This will probably be the only DVD game I ever buy. A PC version of this was released in Japan with Hentai Scenes added, I wish that version was ported over instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, although if they just released the version they had on DVD, I would be more than happy. Despite and in spite of the DVD interface, I found myself liking the game very much. Great story, excellent character design, and first rate voice acting.

Anyone know where to get the song they used for any of the "good" endings?

Only reason why I have not gotten Ever 17 yet is because Rightstuf does not have it "in-stock" yet, and since I am a freak about wanting things shipped ASAP... I am waiting for Piece of Wonder to come out, though.

C.T.

Buster Darkwings

01-31-2006, 02:44 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Celsius said:According to the hint on their site, they are bringing over Air next.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess there's no chance of it being an uncensored version of the original PC version since it's Hirameki. Damn.

demonix00

01-31-2006, 07:38 AM

Buster Darkwings

01-31-2006, 07:49 AM

[ QUOTE ]
demon said:
I think this was mentioned in another thread in the off topic forum (although I'm not going digging for it) that the games that Hirameki get are edited when they get them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not an impossiblility, but that doesn't make the edits any more desirable.

Alas, it's probably futile to hope for uncensored versions of big-name H games to show up in the US even from other companies, I guess. The market is too small for the Japanese to make enough in liscensing costs for them to not worry about reverse importation. Hoping for Japan to repeal its ass-backwards censorship laws would probably be more realistic...

Citizen Klaus

01-31-2006, 08:33 AM

Celsius

02-01-2006, 06:15 PM

[ QUOTE ]
cxt217 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Celsius said:
Hourglass of Summer - 8/10. I really really liked this game but I can't rate it higher because it's in the horrible DVD format. IF this game were on the PC It'd score in the 8s for me. Great characters and story. This will probably be the only DVD game I ever buy. A PC version of this was released in Japan with Hentai Scenes added, I wish that version was ported over instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, although if they just released the version they had on DVD, I would be more than happy. Despite and in spite of the DVD interface, I found myself liking the game very much. Great story, excellent character design, and first rate voice acting.

Anyone know where to get the song they used for any of the "good" endings?

Only reason why I have not gotten Ever 17 yet is because Rightstuf does not have it "in-stock" yet, and since I am a freak about wanting things shipped ASAP... I am waiting for Piece of Wonder to come out, though.

C.T.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that the reason TRSI doesn't have it in stock is because Hirameki might've stopped sending out shipments for awhile due to the the missing file on Disc 4. So I guess once the new printings of disc 4 are ready they'll send them out to TRSI. Just a guess of course.

02-02-2006, 08:19 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Buster Darkwings said:
[ QUOTE ]
Celsius said:According to the hint on their site, they are bringing over Air next.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess there's no chance of it being an uncensored version of the original PC version since it's Hirameki. Damn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well if they release the All Ages Version, they dont need to censor anything, meaning that you get an uncensored version, yeah! /images/graemlins/wink.gif And I think thats the case for all their titles. They dont censor ANYTHING coz they just take the All Ages versions released by the japanese.
Plus when it comes to games like AIR I dont want any hentai scenes anyways but thats just my opinion. H scenes wont stop me of playing such a great game though.

Oh and where does it say on their page that they're considering AIR?

Buster Darkwings

02-02-2006, 08:28 AM

Well, I'd much rather have both versions released in the US, but without the anime being released or even liscensed as far as we know, then if this does turn out to be true then I don't see the game selling very well.

And wasn't one of their early games the censored version of the PC game when there was also a general release? I haven't kept up with their releases. I had considered getting Natsuiro no Sunadokei from them, but when I asked on here no one responded to my question of which version it was, so I just ended up getting the Japanese PS2 LE version.

02-02-2006, 09:01 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Buster Darkwings said:
And wasn't one of their early games the censored version of the PC game when there was also a general release?

[/ QUOTE ]
Now that I think about it you could be right.
[ QUOTE ]

I haven't kept up with their releases. I had considered getting Natsuiro no Sunadokei from them, but when I asked on here no one responded to my question of which version it was, so I just ended up getting the Japanese PS2 LE version.

[/ QUOTE ]
Natsuiro no Sunadokei is the only title I got from them and I think they simply took the All Ages version.

Pelianth

02-02-2006, 02:38 PM

Celsius

02-03-2006, 01:38 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Jadawin said:
[ QUOTE ]
Buster Darkwings said:
[ QUOTE ]
Celsius said:According to the hint on their site, they are bringing over Air next.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess there's no chance of it being an uncensored version of the original PC version since it's Hirameki. Damn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well if they release the All Ages Version, they dont need to censor anything, meaning that you get an uncensored version, yeah! /images/graemlins/wink.gif And I think thats the case for all their titles. They dont censor ANYTHING coz they just take the All Ages versions released by the japanese.
Plus when it comes to games like AIR I dont want any hentai scenes anyways but thats just my opinion. H scenes wont stop me of playing such a great game though.

Oh and where does it say on their page that they're considering AIR?

[/ QUOTE ]

I heard that from GameFAQs from this topic: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=931349&topic=25740265

It says it's somewhere in the Akiba blog.

Also regarding Natusuiro no Sunadokei (Hourglass of Summer), the version that NA got was a port of the PS2 version (original version w/o Hentai scenes) onto DVD. It's the only DVD game I bought from Hirameki, although right now I'm thinking about picking up Day of Love.

VanG

02-03-2006, 01:45 PM

A bit off topic, just want to ask are the voice actors in NA Hourglass of Summer same as the anime OVA version?

Nyanyaan

02-03-2006, 05:18 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Jadawin said:
[ QUOTE ]
Buster Darkwings said:
[ QUOTE ]
Celsius said:According to the hint on their site, they are bringing over Air next.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess there's no chance of it being an uncensored version of the original PC version since it's Hirameki. Damn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well if they release the All Ages Version, they dont need to censor anything, meaning that you get an uncensored version, yeah! /images/graemlins/wink.gif And I think thats the case for all their titles. They dont censor ANYTHING coz they just take the All Ages versions released by the japanese.
Plus when it comes to games like AIR I dont want any hentai scenes anyways but thats just my opinion. H scenes wont stop me of playing such a great game though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, the versions of the hirameki DVD games we got here where this 'issue' was raised (Hourglass of Summer and Witch's Tea Party) are the versions released in Japan with the overt H-scenes cut. The Ever17 port is also from the all ages console version too. I think part of the problem was that especially with Tea Party, it was kind of obvious where certain events were removed and thus it was thought the cuts were done in the US, when they wern't.

If they indeed might have Air and with several of their next releases Animundi and Piece of Wonder, this is definitely the strongest attempt to port renai games outside of the pure h-game titles of say a Peach Princess. I plan to purchase all, and hope this market can finally find some establishment in the US.

cxt217

02-03-2006, 05:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]
VanG said:
A bit off topic, just want to ask are the voice actors in NA Hourglass of Summer same as the anime OVA version?

[/ QUOTE ]

Assuming ANN's entry about the series is correct, "yes" regarding the four female leads (Nana Mizuki as Kaho; Masayo Kurata as Ai; Kikuko Inoue as Tomomi; Rikako Aikawa as Mana; Fumiko Orikasa as Ligene - which is how the game spells it.). I do not believe Hirameki ever translated who was providing the voices of the main character or Takashi in the game.

Another reason why I would prefer the game on PC is that because EVERY single scene has to be pre-rendered and store on the DVD, loading times can range from the noticeable to the downright annoying. A PC version would not only use up less space, but at least cut down on the pauses.

C.T.

Celsius

02-04-2006, 01:55 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Nyanyaan said:
[ QUOTE ]
Jadawin said:
[ QUOTE ]
Buster Darkwings said:
[ QUOTE ]
Celsius said:According to the hint on their site, they are bringing over Air next.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess there's no chance of it being an uncensored version of the original PC version since it's Hirameki. Damn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well if they release the All Ages Version, they dont need to censor anything, meaning that you get an uncensored version, yeah! /images/graemlins/wink.gif And I think thats the case for all their titles. They dont censor ANYTHING coz they just take the All Ages versions released by the japanese.
Plus when it comes to games like AIR I dont want any hentai scenes anyways but thats just my opinion. H scenes wont stop me of playing such a great game though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, the versions of the hirameki DVD games we got here where this 'issue' was raised (Hourglass of Summer and Witch's Tea Party) are the versions released in Japan with the overt H-scenes cut. The Ever17 port is also from the all ages console version too. I think part of the problem was that especially with Tea Party, it was kind of obvious where certain events were removed and thus it was thought the cuts were done in the US, when they wern't.

If they indeed might have Air and with several of their next releases Animundi and Piece of Wonder, this is definitely the strongest attempt to port renai games outside of the pure h-game titles of say a Peach Princess. I plan to purchase all, and hope this market can finally find some establishment in the US.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know about Witch's Tea Party but Hourglass of Summer was not cut or edited. The thing about Hourglass of Summer is that it was originally released on PS2 by Princess Soft w/o any H-scenes. Then I think it was a year later that a company called Berries released A PC version with extra Hentai scenes added. It's one of the rare cases where a non-hentai game was made into a hentai game. In the hentai version there's actually a little mess up with the plot because of this (on Mana's path).

Also, Ever 17 has no Hentai version. There are 2 versions of Ever 17. The one originally released on PS2 and DC and then the PRemium edition released about a year later on PC then ported to PS2 and DC. The Premium edition, from what I can tell from KID's offical site, added a few new CGs and and I think Sarah in a swim suit. The US port of Ever 17 is the Premium Edition released on PC in JP. So NA has the best version of Ever 17 with everything intact.

VanG

02-04-2006, 01:39 PM

wow, now I really want to get the game. The OVA was fairly interesting and I liked the story concept, the seiyuu cast is a huge plus too. If only Hirameki released it on PC...